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What to expect is cross platform with next gen consoles, F2P with nickel and dime cash shop, sandbox-theme park hybrid for casual players that will fall short of everyone's hopes and dreams about what the game should be or could have been. Quick cash grabs are the new innovation and the buzz words like sandbox are the new EPIC.

After 18 months at San Diego State University, where he was studying computer science, Smedley dropped out to write games on contract for Alien Technology Group. In 1993 he finally took a full-time job at Sony. He needed the salary to support his own online habit: By then, Smedley was running up $600 monthly bills on CyberStrike, one of the first graphic action games played online against others.

He knew that CyberStrike, while primitive, was on the right track. If he was willing to pay to play, he reasoned, there were probably lots of other gamers out there who would be too. So in 1996, Smedley pitched his boss at a Sony-owned PlayStation development studio on the idea of an online role-playing game. It would involve thousands of players at a time, he said. It would be three-dimensional. It would make a fortune.

Smedley recalls, "I got three minutes into this huge presentation, and he just flat out said, 'No.'"

But a few months later, a new boss, Kelly Flock, arrived. Smedley tried his pitch again. He pointed out that programmers at other companies were already working on virtual-world games like Meridian 59. And while he didn't know it at the time, Electronic Arts was already working on Ultima Online. He got the green light: EverQuest was a go. Smedley hired McQuaid and Steve Clover, two ace game programmers who were slaving as corporate systems administrators. Within three years, the small San Diego skunk works grew into a team of 56 developers and one of Sony's most expensive game projects, with a development budget approaching $5 million.

After 18 months at San Diego State University, where he was studying computer science, Smedley dropped out to write games on contract for Alien Technology Group. In 1993 he finally took a full-time job at Sony. He needed the salary to support his own online habit: By then, Smedley was running up $600 monthly bills on CyberStrike, one of the first graphic action games played online against others.

He knew that CyberStrike, while primitive, was on the right track. If he was willing to pay to play, he reasoned, there were probably lots of other gamers out there who would be too. So in 1996, Smedley pitched his boss at a Sony-owned PlayStation development studio on the idea of an online role-playing game. It would involve thousands of players at a time, he said. It would be three-dimensional. It would make a fortune.

Smedley recalls, "I got three minutes into this huge presentation, and he just flat out said, 'No.'"

But a few months later, a new boss, Kelly Flock, arrived. Smedley tried his pitch again. He pointed out that programmers at other companies were already working on virtual-world games like Meridian 59. And while he didn't know it at the time, Electronic Arts was already working on Ultima Online. He got the green light: EverQuest was a go. Smedley hired McQuaid and Steve Clover, two ace game programmers who were slaving as corporate systems administrators. Within three years, the small San Diego skunk works grew into a team of 56 developers and one of Sony's most expensive game projects, with a development budget approaching $5 million.

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What I want to know:

1. Instances - If their is any, and if so hopefully not over used.

2. World - Is it more open, and not the generic railed quest hub that has become the norm, where you trip over quest givers. I want to explore, find camps, dungeons, rare spawns, and bring back the roaming high level dangers, they brought excitement.

3. Dungeons - If their are instances, at least make it 50% open/non-instanced. I would like it to be 100%, but heck 50% would be a huge departure from what we get now.

4. Game play - I know action is the new rage, which is fine for FPS type lobby mmos, but I want what I call a real mmo. I am fine with a dodge or whatever, but I want more traditional game play on this front. I want their to be more focus on what I thought made EQ special, was the precision/tactics, along with the small amount of time to be more social....This would also go more along with their being a role system....If you can change your roles up or whatever, I am open to, but for all the trinity hate, I actually like it.

5. Crafting/Harvesting - This may be the trickiest part, if they are bringing more sandbox back, then how do they balance it with raids/dungeons. Do they do like SWG/Vanguard to where you get a lot of things raiding that go into crafting to make things better? Do they maybe offer comparable items, but slightly different....Is their some decay? Harvesting - I would love a system somewhat like Vanguards, with common, rare, and ultra rare materials...I would be ok with maybe some sort of SWG system also... If crafting is not going to be worth doing, then none of this really matters and they should maybe limit it to some kind of small buffs items, like food....No sense in wasting time on something that is 'crafting', in name only. Like WAR on release, they had crafting, but it was the worst implementation I had ever seen in a MMO.

6. Housing - I would like to see a housing area system, like Vanguard, where you have many areas throughout a big world, with cheaper lots, more expensive lots, and house building choices...This would be a big undertaking and I could see it not being in the cards, due to taking away from the game too much, or launching later. What I do not care to see, and this is personal, as a lot of people do like it, is instanced housing, it feels more like a bank box I can decorate....I personally would just rather more bank space if that is going to be what they do.

7. Leveling/AA/XP - I would love to have leveling slowed down a lot again, I don't see a huge need to maybe bring back the 'hell' or double XP levels every 5 levels, but a slow down would be nice. A alternative to this would be bringing back AAs, but to make them as more of a function to leveling, but make it so people do not maybe feel that it is like that...Since they would be 'max' level....The big drawback to this is that you will probably get people feeling things are alienated and people are being snobs because they cannot play due to lack of certain AAs in a group or some such...I would prefer a slow down period, along with AAs....I also would be good with skills, and no levels, like UO, where you have a cap.

8. Payment model - Pretty sure this will be f2p, I would of preferred p2p, or even b2p. I just hope they do not make it p2w and ruin it. I also would like to see a quality sub option, that pretty much eliminates the cash shop. I doubt that happens, but I really dislike cash shops, it feels like they are trying to drag every nickel and dime out of you they can in a lot of games. Not all do that, but when you make a f2p or b2p game, you have to make people want to buy things, and often that comes at an expense of balance imo.

9. Starter areas/races - I hope they make this like EQ, where we have many different looking and feeling areas where races start. I miss this, often we get a story that explains why you only have 1-2 starting areas, so that makes it to where people cannot make this a complaint in a way...We need a world that has many different areas and places to see, no reason to cheap out in this regard.

10. Travel - I am ok with more limited travel, we probably will not see the OOT boat time travel anymore, but I am ok with druid/wizard/sow/mount travel....If limited portal/PoK travel happens, to where you still have to run and see the world some, I can live with that also.

11. Raids - Will they be more open, like original EQ Vox/Nagafin raids, will they be 72 person, 48, 32, 24, 20.... I am pretty open to this, but I would like to know what they are going to do. I want to keep these separate from dungeons, I mean I have seen like 2-3 person 'raids' in some games, I mean that is a half group dungeon!

12. How are they going to use storybricks? Does this mean created/instanced content, or maybe even open content that is created, that would be something new. It would take a continent maybe for players to make things that could be added/approved by SoE, that would be different. The recent create your content stuff seems to be a big hack/exploit waiting to happen. I mean it is a start, and things always start out a little bad, but the content with created open content sounds like it could be interesting.

I am sure I have many more questions, but I gotta get off of here, and this is a good start for what I want to know personally.

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Originally posted by Xthos

What I want to know:

1. Instances - If their is any, and if so hopefully not over used.

2. World - Is it more open, and not the generic railed quest hub that has become the norm, where you trip over quest givers. I want to explore, find camps, dungeons, rare spawns, and bring back the roaming high level dangers, they brought excitement.

3. Dungeons - If their are instances, at least make it 50% open/non-instanced. I would like it to be 100%, but heck 50% would be a huge departure from what we get now.

4. Game play - I know action is the new rage, which is fine for FPS type lobby mmos, but I want what I call a real mmo. I am fine with a dodge or whatever, but I want more traditional game play on this front. I want their to be more focus on what I thought made EQ special, was the precision/tactics, along with the small amount of time to be more social....This would also go more along with their being a role system....If you can change your roles up or whatever, I am open to, but for all the trinity hate, I actually like it.

5. Crafting/Harvesting - This may be the trickiest part, if they are bringing more sandbox back, then how do they balance it with raids/dungeons. Do they do like SWG/Vanguard to where you get a lot of things raiding that go into crafting to make things better? Do they maybe offer comparable items, but slightly different....Is their some decay? Harvesting - I would love a system somewhat like Vanguards, with common, rare, and ultra rare materials...I would be ok with maybe some sort of SWG system also... If crafting is not going to be worth doing, then none of this really matters and they should maybe limit it to some kind of small buffs items, like food....No sense in wasting time on something that is 'crafting', in name only. Like WAR on release, they had crafting, but it was the worst implementation I had ever seen in a MMO.

6. Housing - I would like to see a housing area system, like Vanguard, where you have many areas throughout a big world, with cheaper lots, more expensive lots, and house building choices...This would be a big undertaking and I could see it not being in the cards, due to taking away from the game too much, or launching later. What I do not care to see, and this is personal, as a lot of people do like it, is instanced housing, it feels more like a bank box I can decorate....I personally would just rather more bank space if that is going to be what they do.

7. Leveling/AA/XP - I would love to have leveling slowed down a lot again, I don't see a huge need to maybe bring back the 'hell' or double XP levels every 5 levels, but a slow down would be nice. A alternative to this would be bringing back AAs, but to make them as more of a function to leveling, but make it so people do not maybe feel that it is like that...Since they would be 'max' level....The big drawback to this is that you will probably get people feeling things are alienated and people are being snobs because they cannot play due to lack of certain AAs in a group or some such...I would prefer a slow down period, along with AAs....I also would be good with skills, and no levels, like UO, where you have a cap.

8. Payment model - Pretty sure this will be f2p, I would of preferred p2p, or even b2p. I just hope they do not make it p2w and ruin it. I also would like to see a quality sub option, that pretty much eliminates the cash shop. I doubt that happens, but I really dislike cash shops, it feels like they are trying to drag every nickel and dime out of you they can in a lot of games. Not all do that, but when you make a f2p or b2p game, you have to make people want to buy things, and often that comes at an expense of balance imo.

9. Starter areas/races - I hope they make this like EQ, where we have many different looking and feeling areas where races start. I miss this, often we get a story that explains why you only have 1-2 starting areas, so that makes it to where people cannot make this a complaint in a way...We need a world that has many different areas and places to see, no reason to cheap out in this regard.

10. Travel - I am ok with more limited travel, we probably will not see the OOT boat time travel anymore, but I am ok with druid/wizard/sow/mount travel....If limited portal/PoK travel happens, to where you still have to run and see the world some, I can live with that also.

11. Raids - Will they be more open, like original EQ Vox/Nagafin raids, will they be 72 person, 48, 32, 24, 20.... I am pretty open to this, but I would like to know what they are going to do. I want to keep these separate from dungeons, I mean I have seen like 2-3 person 'raids' in some games, I mean that is a half group dungeon!

12. How are they going to use storybricks? Does this mean created/instanced content, or maybe even open content that is created, that would be something new. It would take a continent maybe for players to make things that could be added/approved by SoE, that would be different. The recent create your content stuff seems to be a big hack/exploit waiting to happen. I mean it is a start, and things always start out a little bad, but the content with created open content sounds like it could be interesting.

I am sure I have many more questions, but I gotta get off of here, and this is a good start for what I want to know personally.

why even have lots? if the world is large enough they can make it so you could just build your house anywhere. would be really cool if they added the ability to terraform too so you could build a small island in the middle of a lake or something and put your house on it.

as for the rest of your points,i really hope they pull away from the traditional themepark and go more towards a true sandbox. some little themepark dabs here and there wouldn't be bad but i really hope i don't see any yellow ! over any NPC's head.

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Originally posted by Nadia

Originally posted by Boognishe

Originally posted by Nique71i don't remember being able to change UI's in Everquest. That ability I thought was started with WOW. I played Lineage 2 and FFXI inbetween Everquest and WOW and i don't remember those 2 games having that feature either.

In the summer of 2002, SOE opened up the ability to customize your EQ experience on the PC side. Allowing the use of XML and tga files to create your own "User Interface" look. Immediately web sites sprung to life to host and share others UI work.

2. World - Is it more open, and not the generic railed quest hub that has become the norm, where you trip over quest givers. I want to explore, find camps, dungeons, rare spawns, and bring back the roaming high level dangers, they brought excitement.

3. Dungeons - If their are instances, at least make it 50% open/non-instanced. I would like it to be 100%, but heck 50% would be a huge departure from what we get now.

4. Game play - I know action is the new rage, which is fine for FPS type lobby mmos, but I want what I call a real mmo. I am fine with a dodge or whatever, but I want more traditional game play on this front. I want their to be more focus on what I thought made EQ special, was the precision/tactics, along with the small amount of time to be more social....This would also go more along with their being a role system....If you can change your roles up or whatever, I am open to, but for all the trinity hate, I actually like it.

5. Crafting/Harvesting - This may be the trickiest part, if they are bringing more sandbox back, then how do they balance it with raids/dungeons. Do they do like SWG/Vanguard to where you get a lot of things raiding that go into crafting to make things better? Do they maybe offer comparable items, but slightly different....Is their some decay? Harvesting - I would love a system somewhat like Vanguards, with common, rare, and ultra rare materials...I would be ok with maybe some sort of SWG system also... If crafting is not going to be worth doing, then none of this really matters and they should maybe limit it to some kind of small buffs items, like food....No sense in wasting time on something that is 'crafting', in name only. Like WAR on release, they had crafting, but it was the worst implementation I had ever seen in a MMO.

6. Housing - I would like to see a housing area system, like Vanguard, where you have many areas throughout a big world, with cheaper lots, more expensive lots, and house building choices...This would be a big undertaking and I could see it not being in the cards, due to taking away from the game too much, or launching later. What I do not care to see, and this is personal, as a lot of people do like it, is instanced housing, it feels more like a bank box I can decorate....I personally would just rather more bank space if that is going to be what they do.

7. Leveling/AA/XP - I would love to have leveling slowed down a lot again, I don't see a huge need to maybe bring back the 'hell' or double XP levels every 5 levels, but a slow down would be nice. A alternative to this would be bringing back AAs, but to make them as more of a function to leveling, but make it so people do not maybe feel that it is like that...Since they would be 'max' level....The big drawback to this is that you will probably get people feeling things are alienated and people are being snobs because they cannot play due to lack of certain AAs in a group or some such...I would prefer a slow down period, along with AAs....I also would be good with skills, and no levels, like UO, where you have a cap.

8. Payment model - Pretty sure this will be f2p, I would of preferred p2p, or even b2p. I just hope they do not make it p2w and ruin it. I also would like to see a quality sub option, that pretty much eliminates the cash shop. I doubt that happens, but I really dislike cash shops, it feels like they are trying to drag every nickel and dime out of you they can in a lot of games. Not all do that, but when you make a f2p or b2p game, you have to make people want to buy things, and often that comes at an expense of balance imo.

9. Starter areas/races - I hope they make this like EQ, where we have many different looking and feeling areas where races start. I miss this, often we get a story that explains why you only have 1-2 starting areas, so that makes it to where people cannot make this a complaint in a way...We need a world that has many different areas and places to see, no reason to cheap out in this regard.

10. Travel - I am ok with more limited travel, we probably will not see the OOT boat time travel anymore, but I am ok with druid/wizard/sow/mount travel....If limited portal/PoK travel happens, to where you still have to run and see the world some, I can live with that also.

11. Raids - Will they be more open, like original EQ Vox/Nagafin raids, will they be 72 person, 48, 32, 24, 20.... I am pretty open to this, but I would like to know what they are going to do. I want to keep these separate from dungeons, I mean I have seen like 2-3 person 'raids' in some games, I mean that is a half group dungeon!

12. How are they going to use storybricks? Does this mean created/instanced content, or maybe even open content that is created, that would be something new. It would take a continent maybe for players to make things that could be added/approved by SoE, that would be different. The recent create your content stuff seems to be a big hack/exploit waiting to happen. I mean it is a start, and things always start out a little bad, but the content with created open content sounds like it could be interesting.

I am sure I have many more questions, but I gotta get off of here, and this is a good start for what I want to know personally.

why even have lots? if the world is large enough they can make it so you could just build your house anywhere. would be really cool if they added the ability to terraform too so you could build a small island in the middle of a lake or something and put your house on it.

as for the rest of your points,i really hope they pull away from the traditional themepark and go more towards a true sandbox. some little themepark dabs here and there wouldn't be bad but i really hope i don't see any yellow ! over any NPC's head.

I have to agree with you on this. Leaning toward a traditional sandbox would be the best move for them, the game wont be for everyone and it would be a mistake to try and make it like that. Allow players to build their homes similar to what SWG did or even make it more fun and create zones where you can create kingdoms where you are protected by them and fight for them. Making a really FUN sandbox is way easy compared to making a themepark, as long as you have live hosted GM events once to twice a month you can keep your staff employed and players happy.

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Well, the lots thing is so the world doesn't get too cluttered, guess you could have prohibited areas, like UO moved to, after they had clutter problems...

Also, to add to my list.

Server types - PvP/RP/PvE/Team PvP - I know it takes more to pull off, but I would like to see server types. They could make the sandbox more appealing to people, if they actually plan and cater to different servers/communities. They you could have FFA world pvp, ffa world pvp with full loot, faction (good/evil/neutral if 3) pvp, roleplay that actually is more suited to maybe use the storybricks aspect even more, where players can make towns, put on events, plays, etc...for people that like to do that. Those that don't, it doesn't take anything away from how they like to play the game.

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Also, on the sandbox note, I am good with sandbox, I like it, UO is one of my favorite games of all time, but I would be totally shocked it they went say 80%+ traditional sandbox. I see it maybe more of a 60/70% being the max.

I am excited to see it, but not knowing anything for the most part, I also have to stay open to dislike for whatever they do. I think you would be a fool to be all in, with what they have shown so far. We just have words, and I played UO/EQ for 6-8 years each, so if we got a updated more featured UO or a EQ/UO updated mix with player tools, I can be 'good' on a range of stuff.

What I am not good on is a e sport, railed, instance everything lobby mmo, if they do this, no way in hell I play it.

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Completely different and unique race starting points are a must - far from each other, too, so the trip to meet a friend from another race becomes a journey or adventure.

I also hope, and would like to know if, they will bring racial armor back into the game. Looking unique to your own species/race was pretty cool back in the day (though it all looked the same within a race back then - something that would have to change).

2. World - Is it more open, and not the generic railed quest hub that has become the norm, where you trip over quest givers. I want to explore, find camps, dungeons, rare spawns, and bring back the roaming high level dangers, they brought excitement.

3. Dungeons - If their are instances, at least make it 50% open/non-instanced. I would like it to be 100%, but heck 50% would be a huge departure from what we get now.

4. Game play - I know action is the new rage, which is fine for FPS type lobby mmos, but I want what I call a real mmo. I am fine with a dodge or whatever, but I want more traditional game play on this front. I want their to be more focus on what I thought made EQ special, was the precision/tactics, along with the small amount of time to be more social....This would also go more along with their being a role system....If you can change your roles up or whatever, I am open to, but for all the trinity hate, I actually like it.

5. Crafting/Harvesting - This may be the trickiest part, if they are bringing more sandbox back, then how do they balance it with raids/dungeons. Do they do like SWG/Vanguard to where you get a lot of things raiding that go into crafting to make things better? Do they maybe offer comparable items, but slightly different....Is their some decay? Harvesting - I would love a system somewhat like Vanguards, with common, rare, and ultra rare materials...I would be ok with maybe some sort of SWG system also... If crafting is not going to be worth doing, then none of this really matters and they should maybe limit it to some kind of small buffs items, like food....No sense in wasting time on something that is 'crafting', in name only. Like WAR on release, they had crafting, but it was the worst implementation I had ever seen in a MMO.

6. Housing - I would like to see a housing area system, like Vanguard, where you have many areas throughout a big world, with cheaper lots, more expensive lots, and house building choices...This would be a big undertaking and I could see it not being in the cards, due to taking away from the game too much, or launching later. What I do not care to see, and this is personal, as a lot of people do like it, is instanced housing, it feels more like a bank box I can decorate....I personally would just rather more bank space if that is going to be what they do.

7. Leveling/AA/XP - I would love to have leveling slowed down a lot again, I don't see a huge need to maybe bring back the 'hell' or double XP levels every 5 levels, but a slow down would be nice. A alternative to this would be bringing back AAs, but to make them as more of a function to leveling, but make it so people do not maybe feel that it is like that...Since they would be 'max' level....The big drawback to this is that you will probably get people feeling things are alienated and people are being snobs because they cannot play due to lack of certain AAs in a group or some such...I would prefer a slow down period, along with AAs....I also would be good with skills, and no levels, like UO, where you have a cap.

8. Payment model - Pretty sure this will be f2p, I would of preferred p2p, or even b2p. I just hope they do not make it p2w and ruin it. I also would like to see a quality sub option, that pretty much eliminates the cash shop. I doubt that happens, but I really dislike cash shops, it feels like they are trying to drag every nickel and dime out of you they can in a lot of games. Not all do that, but when you make a f2p or b2p game, you have to make people want to buy things, and often that comes at an expense of balance imo.

9. Starter areas/races - I hope they make this like EQ, where we have many different looking and feeling areas where races start. I miss this, often we get a story that explains why you only have 1-2 starting areas, so that makes it to where people cannot make this a complaint in a way...We need a world that has many different areas and places to see, no reason to cheap out in this regard.

10. Travel - I am ok with more limited travel, we probably will not see the OOT boat time travel anymore, but I am ok with druid/wizard/sow/mount travel....If limited portal/PoK travel happens, to where you still have to run and see the world some, I can live with that also.

11. Raids - Will they be more open, like original EQ Vox/Nagafin raids, will they be 72 person, 48, 32, 24, 20.... I am pretty open to this, but I would like to know what they are going to do. I want to keep these separate from dungeons, I mean I have seen like 2-3 person 'raids' in some games, I mean that is a half group dungeon!

12. How are they going to use storybricks? Does this mean created/instanced content, or maybe even open content that is created, that would be something new. It would take a continent maybe for players to make things that could be added/approved by SoE, that would be different. The recent create your content stuff seems to be a big hack/exploit waiting to happen. I mean it is a start, and things always start out a little bad, but the content with created open content sounds like it could be interesting.

I am sure I have many more questions, but I gotta get off of here, and this is a good start for what I want to know personally.

why even have lots? if the world is large enough they can make it so you could just build your house anywhere. would be really cool if they added the ability to terraform too so you could build a small island in the middle of a lake or something and put your house on it.

as for the rest of your points,i really hope they pull away from the traditional themepark and go more towards a true sandbox. some little themepark dabs here and there wouldn't be bad but i really hope i don't see any yellow ! over any NPC's head.

I have to agree with you on this. Leaning toward a traditional sandbox would be the best move for them, the game wont be for everyone and it would be a mistake to try and make it like that. Allow players to build their homes similar to what SWG did or even make it more fun and create zones where you can create kingdoms where you are protected by them and fight for them. Making a really FUN sandbox is way easy compared to making a themepark, as long as you have live hosted GM events once to twice a month you can keep your staff employed and players happy.

1. Instances are an attempt to make dungeons not feel crowded like a city. Vanguard tried to do a more modern take non-instanced world / dungeons, and what they did was created the dungeons in such a way that there were multiple ways to progress through them. However, it didn't work very well as even with multiple paths and fast respawning mobs, groups would often clash with each other. The original EQ was notorious for us players having "wait in line" to "camp" a mob. In Vanguard, good dungeons became congested and it really hurt the experience. Instancing solved these kinds of problems in other games, but it makes the world feel less alive and immersive. I guess I'm saying that I'm fine with either way, as long as it's done good.

2. I agree. A dynamic changing open would would be a lot more fun than the standard bread crumb trail quest hubs. Give the players freedom and reward exploration. Something sort of like the Dynamic Event system in GW2 might be really good. Reward exploration, don't punish players for working together, etc. I'd really like to see a great open world experience.

3. This was already talked about. Instances can be good, instances can be bad. What matters is if they do it right, no matter what style of dungeon they choose to go with. Personally, I think an open dungeon that simply gets harder and reacts to more players appropriately would be the best solution. That way, if you run into another group, or 2 or 3, like what happened in Vanguard and EQ's open dungeons, you're not fighting over mobs or tripping over each other. It would simply just become challenging and rewarding for everyone involved.

4. You touched on a lot of different things, class roles, trinity, style of gameplay, etc. I would say that I'm all for any kind of combat system, Action like in Tera or Neverwinter. Traditional like in EQ, WoW, Aion, SWTOR, etc. Or a mix of the 2, sort of like GW2. But just make sure the gameplay is fun. I've played some action combat games which sucked compared to the gameplay in EQ2 or Vanguard, but I've also played action games that made traditional combat seem lame. All I'm saying is stick to something and do it right. As for class roles, I prefer freedom myself. I hate "liking the concept" of a class, but not wanting to be what ever role that class is. I prefer systems where a character is either completely customizable, or class systems where your class is really just a theme, but you can make it fit multiple roles depending on how you spec it.

I'm also in for some sort of small downtime, maybe not in between every fight, but enough so you actually have time to socialize with people you're playing with. Too many MMORPGs now a days are anti-social. I'd like to see them bring some of that back, but without getting into the pitfalls of original EQ. I also think that integrated in game VOIP will help a lot with this. I generally use Vent, as I own my own server, but it would be really nice to walk up to another player and instantly verbally speak with them, or to get into a pick up group and instantly be coordinated with VOIP. I think it would really make the game feel more alive and immersive.

5. I think crafting NEEDS to be made useful, or else it's going to alienate a lot of it's fanbase. Vanguard had an amazing crafting system, complete with it's own gears, skills and levels. Creating a piece of gear was like fighting a mob, you had to react to complications and take advantage of innovations with skills you learned through leveling up. All gear was highly customizable, the item type, rarity, extra stats, procs, it all made for a system that allowed a crafter to really custom make items to order. It was great. However, how do you mix this with adventuring? Well honestly, I think the best possible solution is to only have very basic gear drop from adventuring, but have crafting materials be the main drops in the game. That way, you can either buy a piece of gear outright from a crafter, or provide materials you found in dungeons and have the crafter make you something to order for less money. That way, a crafter could be useful, and never be seen as obsolete, but it also allows adventure drops to be useful too.

6. EQ2's housing system is considered one of the best for instanced housing, and Vanguard / SWG's housing are often considered the best examples of open world type housing. I have no doubt EQN is going to have a good housing system in some form. I trust what ever they come up with will be well worth spending time on. Though I am hoping for a SWG style housing system haha.

7. AA's are fun, especially if they're done right. I also don't mind slower leveling, as long as the gameplay is fun to go with it. If a game is "fun", then simply playing it should be reward enough. If the game is not fun, then leveling and getting gear becomes a second job. The level/gear system then becomes a bandaid for a much more serious problem. I don't care how long or short the leveling system is. I just want the actual gameplay to be fun, regardless of how fast or slow leveling/getting gear is.

8. EQN is going to be F2P, just as all their other models are. However, SOE does not make their games "Pay2Win". There will be things in the game that you will really want in the cash shop, like bag slots, and exp boosters, and skins, but really, they have to make their game bring in money some how. I think F2P works well with SOE games. You can try out their games with no risk, and the things in the shop are valuable enough to want them, but if you don't buy them, you're not going to be "beaten" by other players because you don't have them. Moral of the story, P2P is a dying model, and even if you spend $100 in the cash shop, that's still the same as paying for a box and playing for 3 or 4 months on a pay to play game. Embrace the micro transactions. They aren't going away.

9. I really do hope they offer multiple starting locations too. They give the game a LOT more replay value, and a lot more freedom.

10. Travel is a tricky thing, but I have a feeling that they're not building the world's largest sandbox just so you can teleport directly into dungeons from the starting city lol. I'm sure there will be some fun travel.

11. As for raids, I hope they just come up with a system that appeals to all sizes of player guilds and groups. Some people love huge raids, some people hate them. I think the key is freedom. How they do it, we'll just have to wait and see.

12. I like the concept of creating your own content, just as long as it isn't exploitable. I'm sure they have safeguards in place.